LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — First responders have been on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic for months. Now, COVID-19 is impacting Las Vegas area firefighters, and some departments are being forced to change their response method.
For the Clark County Fire Department, most of their calls come from the Las Vegas Strip. With a drop in tourism, the department is forced to pull up to 10 units a day out of service.
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"A large part of our demand on a daily basis is the resort corridor," said CCFD Fire Chief John Steinbeck.
"Since the corridor has had less demand because of less occupancy," he explained, "that allows us to shift staffing levels to residential areas."
Right now, demand is slowly starting to come back up because more and more people are making their way back to the Las Vegas Strip.
Chief Steinbeck says the department assesses its needs on a daily basis.
Most of the units out of service are near the Strip, and crews normally assigned to those units are then shifted to other residential parts of the Las Vegas valley.
Chief Steinbeck says even though some units are out of service, this will not impact response times if you call 9-1-1.
